BER (building energy rating) improves with a Stanley Stove

BER is the acronym for building energy rating and many often overlook the importance of installing a stove in their home to improve their energy rating. Stanley Stoves, which are available in many retail stores throughout Ireland can give you’re home an increase of up to 10% in energy efficiency.

BER is a very topical subject at the moment in Ireland. The government even with its extremely stretched resources continue to offer grants for many forms of home energy saving such as cavity wall insulation, interior wall insulation and energy controls which help regulate the heat from the radiators in the home. While no grants are yet available towards your investment in a stove, nonetheless it is a very wise investment to make as it will provide a return on your investment within a number of years and at the same time give you the pleasure and heat that you will achieve from owning a Stanley stove.

Let’s explain the significance of this from a BER point of view. All homes are given an energy rating on a scale from A1 – G or Green to Red. To achieve an A1 rating is the ideal but it does require a lot of improvements particularly with older homes. When you are on a poor rating you can have your walls and roof insulated and this can give an energy rating boost of up to 30% and by installing the recommended newer boilers and energy controls you can boost it by a further 10-12%. Another thing which can be done is to replace exterior and interior doors and non double glazed windows in the home.

However, even with all this done, if you have an open fire in the home, which many Irish homes have, a lot of the heat in the home will disappear up the chimney. By installing a closed-in Stove, which fits into the open fireplace and sealing off the surrounds you can easily prevent this from happening. Apart from making the room feel warmer and less draughty you will boost your rating to bring your home closer to the ‘A’ building energy rating. It is important when doing this that you provide adequate ventilation in the room either through fans & vents or supplying outside air directly to the stove.

Benefits of WS Stoves:

• A stove is 3 Times more energy efficient than open fire with resultant savings in heating costs etc.

• Stove Efficiency – WS stoves have certified (HETAS) efficiencies of up to 80% unlike competitors. Only certified stove efficiencies can be used in BER calculations (most competitor stoves are not certified and a default efficiency of 60% is used for them in BER calculations)

• WS stove will make the house warmer even when not in use as it eliminates ventilation heat losses associated with an open fire.

• WS stoves have outside air supply options which are essential for use with Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) systems, which are required to achieve an ‘A’ rated house.